What you need to know about American Idol season 13 airing on M-Net Series Reality in February

If you still have the stamina and nerves to watch another season of American Idol, be prepared for a shake-up of the broadcast schedule on DStv.

The series moves from M-Net to M-Net Series Reality and will air on Fridays and Saturdays instead of Saturdays and Sundays.

Season 13 starts with the auditions on Friday, 7 February 2014 at 7:30pm and the second episode airs on Saturday, 8 February at 4:30pm. Thereafter episodes air on Fridays and Saturdays throughout February: also at 7:30pm on Fridays and at 4:30pm on Saturdays.

Then, from 1 March, the Saturday episodes fall away and it’ll air on Fridays at 7:30pm only. It premiered in America this past Wednesday (17 January) so we should have caught up with the US by March.

Judges Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick, Jr.

These changes coincide with changes to the show itself. As you very probably know, the show’s been suffering from flailing ratings, particularly with the competition of newer series – most notably The Voice. Word from The New York Times is that the US ratings for Idol have plunged by a whopping 30 percent per season over the past two seasons.

As a result, the show’s made numerous changes to the season including the ditching of the endless footage of terrible singers. The duds won’t be gone completely but they’re being radically downsized.

According to The New York Times, the production team has gone through an overhaul. All four of the principal executive producers are new. So is the director and so is the FOX executive in charge of the whole shebang. Clearly the show’s very worried about its future.

As for the judging panel … the only judge who remains from Season 12 is Keith Urban. J. Lo’s back after missing last season. The two of them are joined by Harry Connick Jr. who’s on the panel for the first time. Apparently (and thankfully!) the show’s going to calm down on all that embarrassing, staged fighting that happened between the judges last season.

Randy Jackson isn’t returning to judge. He’s been demoted to “mentor”. He’s mentoring in place of Jimmy Iovine and his smackworthy cap.

Will all this be enough to save the show? Our gut instinct is that the series jumped the shark* three seasons ago already and that there’s no coming back from it.